APRS Connect

APRS services

The Services tab is a built-in directory of 22 APRS service bots — the automated stations that answer messages with weather forecasts, callsign lookups, SMS relays and more. Each is presented as a guided screen, so you use them without memorising anyone's command syntax.

What a guided screen is

Every service gets a page that says what it does, who runs it, and offers a form for each command — no syntax to memorise. The exact packet each button will send can always be shown before sending: turn on Show APRS commands in Settings and service screens show the full command before it goes. And you can always type a command by hand instead.

Replies from a service thread back like any conversation on the Messages tab, with the same delivery tracking. Four services — WHO-IS, REPEAT, WXNOW, and APRS OTA — get purpose-built screens rather than generic forms.

Nets and groups

#APRSThursday, the #APRSThursday logger (APRSPH), ANSRVR group messaging, MAIL mailboxes, IRC-style channel chat, and CQSRVR. Joining an ANSRVR group turns it into a room on the Messages tab — that whole workflow has its own guide.

Gateways to other networks

  • SMS — send text messages to real phones over APRS. One requirement catches most first attempts: both phone numbers must opt in at aprs.wiki first, or the gateway refuses the message. (The older SMSGTE gateway has shut down; the current gateway answers as the callsign SMS.) Texts appear as ordinary conversation threads, and go out in the clear — APRS is public and archived.
  • Email — one packet, one line of email through the EMAIL-2 gateway. The address and the message together share the 67-character APRS limit, so the screen supports the gateway's saved shortcuts, which leave far more room for the message.
  • Winlink (APRSLink) — send and manage Winlink email from APRS. It needs a Winlink account, and the gateway will not answer until it has seen at least one position beacon from your callsign.
  • WhatsApp — a gateway relaying to WhatsApp.
  • NTS radiograms — ARRL radiograms filed as a guided multi-message exchange, so the form walks you through the pieces in order.

Missed messages: QRX

Register with the QRX mailbox and messages sent while you were off the air are held for you — the app shows how many are waiting and pulls them down.

Activation spotting

  • APSPOT — self-spot a POTA, SOTA, WWFF or SiOTA activation over APRS.
  • APRS2SOTA — put a spot on SOTAwatch.

Weather

  • WXBOT — forecasts by your beaconed position, a city, a ZIP code, a grid square, or a callsign.
  • WXNOW — live current conditions from the weather stations nearest your last beacon.

Utilities

WHO-IS callsign lookup (name and location, without leaving the radio), the MPAD multi-purpose bot, the REPEAT repeater finder (by band and capability — tap a result to copy its frequency), the 9M2PJU-4 all-in-one bot, and JOKE, which sends a joke to your radio.

Reachability and trust

Not every service is reachable from every station. A reachability note warns when a service appears to be RF-only or offline and a reply may not come — it warns, it doesn't block, because you know your own path better than the app does. Services that have not been verified against the live bot are labelled UNCONFIRMED in the directory.

The directory is data, not code

The whole directory is described by a file: each service's callsign, its commands, and what each one sends. Under Settings → Service directory you can export it as JSON, fix or add a service in any text editor, and import it back — with a preview of exactly what will change before anything does, and a one-tap reset to the built-in set.

A service you add or change is marked as yours: the app has not checked it against the live service, and it sends under your callsign — which is why the exact packet is always on the send screen before it goes.

Last updated 31 August 2026

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